BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 325 



The results of the careful handling experiments were consistent 

 throughout, indicating that carefully handled grapes can be safely 

 transported to market over long distances when packed in the ordi- 

 nary commercial crate now in use. A change to redwood sawdust is 

 therefore not desirable, although the sawdust filler very materially 

 reduces the decay. A change in the established method of packing 

 and the type of package in use is not desirable unless it is shown to 

 be absolutely necessary in order to assure the arrival of the fruit at 

 market in sound condition. 



Table-grape storage. — The investigations of the storage of grapes 

 which were begun in 1907, and which have in view the study and 

 determination of the factors which govern the keeping qualities of 

 table grapes in cold storage with the object of lengthening their 

 marketing season, were continued. The work has now reached a 

 point where special phases of the problem bearing on the commercial 

 application of the experiments need to be studied, and the investi- 

 gations during the season of 1910 were planned largely with this 

 object in view. The study of methods of handling and preparing 

 the redwood sawdust to be used as a filler was a feature of the inves- 

 tigations. In addition, a study of the influence of the type of pack- 

 age was made in order to determine whether or not the ordinary 

 box which has been used in the investigations thus far is the typo 

 of package to be recommended for commercial conditions. A com- 

 parison of the grapes packed in boxes with those packed in tight 

 paper-lined drums holding about 25 or 30 pounds of fruit was made. 

 The drum used is comparable with the barrel package used by the 

 Spanish exporters in packing the Almeria or so-called " Malaga " 

 grapes with a filler of ground cork. 



The use of cork was discontinued and all packing was done with 

 redwood sawdust. The sawdust was dried and carefully cleaned to 

 remove the finer particles of dust and slivers which were found in 

 previous years to cling tenaciously to the grape berries. The fanning 

 out of the fine particles does away with the objectionable clinging of 

 the sawdust particles, and the grapes have been found to remain in 

 good condition when packed in the coarse material. 



The varieties included in the storage investigations this year were 

 the Malaga, Muscat of Alexandria, Dattier, Flame Tokay, Emperor, 

 and Cornichon. 



The most important results of the grape-storage work of the year 

 are the full corroboration of the suitability of the cleaned redwood 

 sawdust as a filler for grape packing, the necessity for prompt and 

 quick cooling, and the apparent superiority of the round drum over 

 the ordinary boxes used in previous experiments. 



California orange handling. — During the shipping season of 

 1910-11 the losses from blue-mold decay in many shipments of Wash- 

 ington navel oranges from California were higher than has been the 

 case for several years. An urgent appeal was made to the depart- 

 ment to undertake a study of the factors which might be responsible 

 for the trouble. A careful study of the handling conditions in Cali- 

 fornia during the season was made both to ascertain tlie causes of the 

 decay as well as to corroborate and check up the results of the pre- 

 vious bureau work. 



